Doctor Lambert preached from Matthew 9:35-38, “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

We are to be like Jesus. He went everywhere proclaiming the gospel, to all kinds of people. Why? God loves people and Jesus had great compassion for all people. He knew that without a shepherd they were headed to death and an eternity in hell. Jesus saw no obstacles in approaching people to share the love of God and the solution to their brokenness, whatever the cause.

Doctor Lambert shared with us that it is not our culture, other churches, or the lost, who are responsible for the decline of the church. It is the harvesters, those of us who are saved, who are not doing our job of sharing the love of God.

Doctor Lambert prayed this prayer for us.

Father, please forgive us for thinking the people around us are just people. Please forgive us for thinking that our server is just a server, our mailman is just a mailman, our neighbor is just a neighbor, our boss is just a boss, our employee is just an employee. Forgive us for our failure to see distressed and dispirited people who are sheep without a shepherd. Open our blind eyes and break our hearts with the compassion that is characterized by Jesus, himself. Father forgive us for our sinful silence. Give us boldness to talk about Jesus, boldness to be workers in the field, boldness to remember that heaven and hell are realities that will characterize every one of us, forever.

Father, help us, change us, save our city. Save boys and girls, men and women, save Jacksonville. We don’t want to watch you as you do it without us. We want to be in the fight and in the field. Father I pray you would use your Word and your Spirit to change our lives forever, starting now.